Literature and Poetry Reviews, Home of the Virtual Poetry Circle
Yes, I have another reading challenge to announce! Anna and I decided that 2019 would be another year of reading about any war you wanted in nonfiction, fiction, poetry, and other genres.
We hope you’ll join us and share your reviews and thoughts.
Here’s the post to link up.
It’s that time again when everyone makes lists of books they want to read. We’ve already seen a lot of First Books for 2019, so I’m interested to see what poetry books everyone will be reading this year.
I’m always on the hunt for new poetry read, and I hope you are to. Stop by, join the challenge, let us know how many poetry books or poems you plan to read this year.
When you post about poetry, review a poetry collection, or want to talk about a poem that was powerful, feel free to leave a link below:
No pressure in this challenge, just a lot of sharing.
Sheila at Book Journey always hosts the First Book event. Here’s this year’s post.
My daughter and I decided to participate this year, so we hope you’ll check out the post and join us today.
We had some errands earlier in the day, so this post is a bit late.
My daughter chose to read a debut children’s book by Cristina Hanif today. We met her through her soccer team, and I helped her find a publisher and get her words into print. We’re very excited to help her in a small way reach her goal of publishing Logan and Luna Find the Magic Tree.
I chose to read The Night Circus, which many have already read and enjoyed and which Anna bought me ages ago.
I read fewer books this year, but some of them were fantastic. A lot of the best books I read were poetry. I did read some really great children’s books, too.
I’ve decided to keep the list short this year to only those books that stayed with me long after reading them. This does not mean the other books I rated five stars or four stars were any less fantastic.
Without further ado, here’s my list of the best reads from my year in reading:
1. The Hunger by Alma Katsu is my favorite kind of horror book — based in reality, elements of the supernatural, and deep tension.(my review)
2. Crumb-Sized by Marlena Chertock readers will be immersed in the narrator’s life of debilitating daily pain and how to cope and turn negatives in positives. (my review)
3. Nevertheless, We Persisted, with a foreword by Sen. Amy Klobuchar is a phenomenal collection of essays from those who have endured darkness and seen the light at the end of the tunnel. (my review)
4. Louisiana Catch by Sweta Vikram is fiction that exposes real life dangers that face many of us in the 24/7 social media world we’ve created. From catfishing to abuse, Vikram has developed a multi-layered novel of survival and strength. (my review)
5. Creepy Pair of Underwear! by Aaron Reynolds, illustrated by Peter Brown is the one children’s book that my daughter reads over and over when she wants to read before bed, during the day, or any time really. Rabbit lead character with an active imagination. (my review)
6. How to Love the Empty Air by Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz is a love letter to the past and the passing of a mother. Told beautifully, Aptowicz examines the anxieties we all feel when loved ones do not assuage our fears that they didn’t arrive home safely and explores the empty spaces in between when we say “see you soon” and when it is too late to see them. (my review)
What books are on your best of 2018 lists?
I want to wish everyone a happy holiday season. May you all receive the books you desire.
I’ll post the Best of 2018 list before the end of the year, so keep an eye out.
In the meantime, enjoy your family time.
Mailbox Monday has become a tradition in the blogging world, and many of us thank Marcia of The Printed Page for creating it.
It now has it’s own blog where book bloggers can link up their own mailbox posts and share which books they bought or which they received for review from publishers, authors, and more.
Leslie, Martha, and I also will share our picks from everyone’s links in the new feature Books that Caught Our Eye. We hope you’ll join us.
Here’s what I received:
The Darcy Brothers by Abigail Reynolds, a Kindle freebie.
Theo Darcy is everything his disapproving elder brother, Fitzwilliam, is not—charming, easy-going, and full of fun. A tragic event as children severed their bond of friendship, but now they are together again. They are still at odds, though, this time over the love of Miss Elizabeth Bennet and the truth about George Wickham. Will Wickham manage to divide the brothers again? And more importantly, which Mr. Darcy will Elizabeth choose? Find out as the two brothers lock horns in this unique Pride & Prejudice variation collectively written by five respected authors.
The Darcy Brothers was first conceived as an interactive group writing project and has developed into a full-length novel featuring the charismatic Theo Darcy. A sweet Regency romance for all lovers of Pride and Prejudice.
Mr. Darcy’s Refuge by Abigail Reynolds, a Kindle freebie.
Trapped for three days by a flood, and trapped forever by society because of it….
The river isn’t the only thing overflowing in Hunsford when a natural disaster forces Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy to work together. The residents of flood-stricken Hunsford, seeking refuge in the parsonage atop the hill, are unaware they are interrupting Darcy’s disastrous proposal. Even worse, the flood has washed out the only bride to Rosings Park, stranding Darcy with the woman who has just refused his offer of marriage. But it may already be too late to redeem Elizabeth’s reputation….
One More Chance by Olga Wegner, a Kindle freebie.
What if Elizabeth Bennet had been given opportunity to prolong her stay in Derbyshire at the friends’ house for several months? Having Darcy as her close neighbour can she fall in love with him? Will she be able to look over her own prejudice and apprehension, and see a worthy man who loves, and desires her?
Remember the Past…Only As It Gives You Pleasure by Maria Grace, a Kindle freebie.
Elizabeth Bennet’s father, Admiral Thomas Bennet, assures his daughters that his retirement from His Majesty’s Navy will be the start of a new life for them all. Little does he know his family’s battles have only just begun.
Well-connected and in possession of a good fortune, their entry into society should have been a triumph. However, their long-awaited first season in London proves a disaster, and the resulting scandal sends the Bennets fleeing to the wilds of Derbyshire.
Widower Fitzwilliam Darcy, the master of Pemberley, wants for nothing, most especially not a wife. From the moment the Bennets arrive in Derbyshire, Darcy’s neatly ordered life turns upside down. His sons beg to keep company with their new playmates, the young Bennet twins. His mother-in-law sets her cap for Admiral Bennet. Worst of all, Darcy cannot get his mind off a certain bewitching Miss Elizabeth Bennet, but she has sworn never to let another gentleman near her heart.
Cabs, Cakes, and Corpses by Jennifer Joy, a Kindle freebie.
Jessica James isn’t the kind of girl who has adventures. She isn’t the kind of girl who hops on an airplane to a foreign destination. And she most definitely isn’t the kind of girl to traipse around in the jungle for a murder weapon. But one taxi ride changes everything.
Caught between the crime scene’s evidence and a hard-nosed homicide detective, Jessica is forced into one catastrophe after another as she searches for the truth. With the help of two elderly sisters (who are more troublesome than helpful), she’ll either catch a murderer … or end up in jail.
Will Jessica’s newfound bravery help her survive her vacation? Or will it make her the next victim?
Loving Longest by Lisa Van Gemert, a Kindle freebie.
When English teacher Emma Shepardson’s own life begins to echo Jane Austen’s novel “Persuasion,” she is too close to the situation to learn from Austen’s characters’ mistakes and must make her own. Recently widowed and guy shy, Emma knows all about literary conflict and theme, but when Adam Abramson enters her life, she can’t seem to transfer that knowledge to their relationship. Driven apart like Austen’s Anne Elliott and Captain Wentworth, Emma and Adam struggle unsuccessfully to overcome the forces that separate them. Adam, suffering from post traumatic relationship syndrome, can’t let himself trust Emma. Emma can’t forgive herself, her husband, Adam’s mother, or Adam himself, and hardens her heart against the pain she fears more than the love she feels. Their reunion eight years later challenges both of them to look beyond past hurt, to overcome the pain they’ve caused themselves and each other, and find out who really does love longest when all hope seems to be gone.
The Engagement by Olga Wegner, a Kindle freebie.
The story depicts the period of Darcy and Elizabeth’s engagement. How will our beloved couple survive three months of constant encounters with family, friends and relatives? Will they find a moment of privacy? Will they break the rules of propriety, anticipating their wedding vows?
What did you receive?
Usually at this time of the year, I’m reading to meet my goal on GoodReads or just trying to finish up the dozen books I’m reading at the moment.Not this year, since I met my goal already.
In the middle of that, I’m usually scrambling to find a meaningful or needed gift for friends, family, and others. I love giving gifts to those who don’t expect them. I also love sharing some of my favorite books in bookstores and on the Metro, and pretty much anywhere where books can be discussed.
In that spirit, I wanted to provide you with a short list of poetry books I love and why I think you should share them — I’ll even give you a couple hints as to who might love them, even if they say they don’t read poetry.
For the Kids:
1. Ada Twist, Scientist by Andrea Beaty, illustrated by David Roberts, is a perfect introduction to rhyme and poetry, as well as a strong girl who loves science and can do anything. The book will inspire children to get the discovery bug and want to find out for themselves how the world operates and what is going on around them. (my review)
2. Fly with Me: A Celebration of Birds Through Pictures, Poems, and Stories by Jane Yolen, Heidi E.Y. Stemple, Adam Stemple, and Jason Stemple is more than just poetry; it’s a collection and celebration of words and image. This is a collection for bird lovers, young kids learning about nature and birds, and the whole family. Through words and photographs and illustrations, kids can learn about birds in their area, migration, and so much more. (my review)
3. Poe: Stories and Poems by Edgar Allan Poe, adapted by Gareth Hinds, is gorgeous! Any one who knows Poe’s poems and stories will want this in their collection. The graphic novel brings the poems and stories to life. These classics become vibrant, and it will be a great way to show younger readers the gruesome and haunting lines of Poe come to life. (my review)
For Dog/Animal Lovers:
1. Dog Songs by Mary Oliver brings to life the familial relationship people have with their dogs and other animals. There are moments of pure joy and moments of deep sadness. Her poems always carry a universality, and she reminds us that dogs are sentient beings as well. (my review)
For Science Fiction/Science Lovers:
1. Field Guide to the End of the World by Jeannine Hall Gailey is the best collection for those who love science fiction, zombies, apocalypse survival movies, and its a guide written in accessible, fun, and funny poetic verse. You cannot go wrong with this one. Even my book club enjoyed it, and many of them are not poetry readers. (my review)
2. Crumb-Sized: Poems by Marlena Chertock is a pint size collection with a powerful punch that uses science, humor, and space exploration to examine some deep issues, including body image and disability. These poems will have readers looking at space exploration in a more grounded way. (my review)
Grab Bag — Collections for the Adventurous:
1. Saris and a Single Malt by Sweta Srivastava Vikram is a deeply emotional collection about loss and a tribute to a mother gone too soon. Through the various stages of grief, the poet shares her most intimate loss and the anger, sadness, and confusion she felt. Cherish those closest to you. (my review)
2. Story Problems: Poems by Charles Jensen is a creative collection that brings a new level of interactivity to poetry. Open-ended questions about world and self-examination in a collection with the cover of a composition book from school. A collection that deals with identity and loss, and so much more. (my review)
3. Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine is so powerful that even three years after I’ve read it, I still think about all the cultural and racial questions it raises. The essays, poems, etc. blur the line between I, she, he, etc. to make it a much more universal commentary on how we are all human and connected to each other. (my review)
4. Point Blank by Alan King brings to life the rhythm and funk of life as a young boy growing up black in America where the color of your skin still taints how you are perceived and treated. Although there are some fun moments and great pop culture references, there’s a great deal to think and discuss with others about race in America. There’s a frankness to these poems that cannot be ignored. (my review)
If you have someone who’s hard to buy books for, perhaps they need something like poetry this holiday season.
If you need a different recommendation, feel free to leave a comment and I’ll do my best to offer a collection that would be suit.
I’d love to hear about what books your buying friends and loved ones, too, even if they’re not poetry.
Source: Purchased
Paperback, 160 pgs.
I am an Amazon Affiliate
Wild Embers by Nikita Gill is a collection of poems to empower women to embrace all that they are — wild or not — and to inspire them to love themselves enough not to fall into the deadly traps of wolves.
One of my favorites from this collection was “Multiverse” in which the poet examines the concepts of time and universes — parallel lives in which things are better. I also loved “Your Heart Is Not a Hospital” in which the idea of fixing lovers and friends is explored. “Learned Helplessness” and “The Bones of Trauma” also are fantastic. These poems are personal and examine the roots of abuse and learning to move forward and love oneself.
Gill takes on some fairy-tale characters and goddesses and recharacterizes them in poetic sketches. But these are not as in-depth or as powerful as those persona poems created by other poets. They barely scratch the surface of these characters and sometimes read like a litany of characteristics we learned about in school. While the purpose and intent are sound — empowering women — the execution fell flat for me. I far preferred the first half of the book that was more personal.
Wild Embers by Nikita Gill is a good first collection, even if the second half of the collection falls a bit flat. The beginning poems are worth reading more than once and sharing with others.
RATING: Tercet
About the Poet:
Mailbox Monday has become a tradition in the blogging world, and many of us thank Marcia of The Printed Page for creating it.
It now has it’s own blog where book bloggers can link up their own mailbox posts and share which books they bought or which they received for review from publishers, authors, and more.
Leslie, Martha, and I also will share our picks from everyone’s links in the new feature Books that Caught Our Eye. We hope you’ll join us.
Here’s what I received:
Just Universes by Diana Smith Bolton, which I purchased at the December DiVerse Poetry Gaithersburg reading.
A Compass for My Bones by Diana Smith Bolton, which I purchased at the December DiVerse Poetry Gaithersburg reading.
President Darcy by Victoria Kincaid, purchased 
with Audible.
President William Darcy has it all: wealth, intelligence, and the most powerful job in the country. Despite what his friends say, he is not lonely in the White House. He’s not. And he has vowed not to date while he’s in office. Nor is he interested in Elizabeth Bennet. She might be pretty and funny and smart, but her family is nouveau riche and unbearable. Unfortunately, he encounters her everywhere in Washington, DC – making her harder and harder to ignore. Why can’t he get her out of his mind?
Elizabeth Bennet enjoys her job with the Red Cross and loves her family, despite their tendency to embarrass her. At a White House state dinner, they cause her to make an unfavorable impression on the president, who labels her unattractive and uninteresting. Those words are immediately broadcast on Twitter, so the whole world now knows the president insulted her. Elizabeth just wants to avoid the man – who, let’s admit it, is proud and difficult. For some reason, he acts all friendly when they keep running into each other, but she knows he’s judging her.
Eventually, circumstances force Darcy and Elizabeth to confront their true feelings for each other, with explosive results. But even if they can find common ground, Mr. Darcy is still the president – with limited privacy and unlimited responsibilities – and his enemies won’t hesitate to use his feelings for Elizabeth against him. Can President Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet find their way to happily ever after?
Christmas at Darcy House by Victoria Kincaid, from the author through Audible for review.
Mr. Darcy hopes Christmastime will help him to forget the pair of fine eyes he left behind in Hertfordshire. When Elizabeth Bennet appears unexpectedly in London, Darcy decides to keep his distance, resolved to withstand his attraction to her. But when he learns Wickham is threatening to propose to Elizabeth, Darcy faces a crisis.
For her part, Elizabeth does not understand why the unpleasant master of Pemberley insists on dancing with her at the Christmas ball or how his eyes happen to seek her out so often. She enjoys Mr. Wickham’s company and is flattered when he makes her an offer of marriage. On the other hand, Mr. Darcy’s proposal is unexpected and unwelcome.
But the more Elizabeth learns of Mr. Darcy, the more confused she becomes – as she prepares to make the most momentous decision of her life.
It’s a yuletide season of love and passion as your favorite characters enjoy Christmas at Darcy House!
Mudbound by Hillary Jordan, purchased with Audible for Book Club.
Hillary Jordan’s mesmerizing debut novel won the Bellwether Prize for fiction. A powerful piece of Southern literature, Mudbound takes on prejudice in its myriad forms on a Mississippi Delta farm in 1946. City girl Laura McAllen attempts to raise her family despite questionable decisions made by her husband. Tensions continue to rise when her brother-in-law and the son of a family of sharecroppers both return from WWII as changed men bearing the scars of combat.
These Dreams by Nicole Clarkston, from the author 
through Audible for review.
An abandoned bride, a missing man, and a dream that refuses to die….
Pride and patriotism lend fervor to greed and cruelty, and Fitzwilliam Darcy is caught at the centre of a decades-old international feud. Taken far from England, presumed dead by his family, and lost to all he holds dear, only one name remains as his beacon in the darkness: Elizabeth.
Georgiana Darcy is now the heartbroken heiress to Pemberley, and Colonel Fitzwilliam her bewildered guardian. Vulnerable and unprepared, Georgiana desperately longs for a friend, while Fitzwilliam seeks to protect her from his own family. As the conspiracy around Darcy’s death widens and questions mount, Colonel Fitzwilliam must confront his own past. An impossible dream, long ago sacrificed for duty, may become his only hope.
Newly married Lydia Wickham returns to Longbourn – alone and under mysterious circumstances. Elizabeth Bennet watches one sister suffer and another find joy, while she lives her own days in empty regrets over what might have been. Believing Darcy lost forever, she closes her heart against both pain and happiness, but finds no escape from her dreams of him.
What did you receive?
Mailbox Monday has become a tradition in the blogging world, and many of us thank Marcia of The Printed Page for creating it.
It now has it’s own blog where book bloggers can link up their own mailbox posts and share which books they bought or which they received for review from publishers, authors, and more.
Leslie, Martha, and I also will share our picks from everyone’s links in the new feature Books that Caught Our Eye. We hope you’ll join us.
Here’s what I received:
Happy Christmas from the Darcys by Barbara Silkstone, a Kindle freebie.
A Cozy Holiday Feel Good Tale ~ Book 7 in the Mister Darcy Comedy Mystery Series.
~*~
With the best of intentions Elizabeth Darcy plans a surprise Christmas Eve for Fitzwilliam Darcy at their London penthouse. How much chaos will little urchin Annie and her seven siblings, plus the entire Bennet clan, bring to One Snyde Park? Add two basset hounds, one borzoi, a shaggy otter hound, and a disheveled nun who bears a striking resemblance to Caroline Bingley; then stir in some holiday magic and you have a Happy Christmas wish from the Darcy home to yours.
***Contains an excerpt from MISTER DARCY’S CHRISTMAS… or how Darcy and Lizzie met little urchin Annie.
Patti Smith at the Minetta Lane: Words and Music by Patti Smith, an Audible freebie.
Patti Smith: Words and Music features live audio of performances captured over three evenings at the Minetta Lane Theatre, woven into a single, one-of-a-kind audio event.
On September 22, 23, and 24 of 2018, pioneering artist and writer Patti Smith took to the stage to perform original spoken-word stories from her life, interwoven with the music of her beloved catalog played live by Smith, her son and daughter – Jackson and Jesse Paris Smith – and longtime collaborator Tony Shanahan. What transpired was a personally revelatory showcase, an intimate portrait of an icon, focusing on family and taking stock of a near to 50-year career devoted to artistic integrity.
Have a Nice Day, a free Audible collection of essays.
Have a Nice Day features a live multi-cast script reading captured over two evenings in October of 2018 at Audible’s Minetta Lane Theatre in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village.
Tony and Emmy Award-winner Billy Crystal leads an all-star cast including Oscar winner Kevin Kline (President David Murray) and four-time Oscar nominee Annette Bening (First Lady Katherine Murray) in a performance of this hilarious and poignant story about a man desperately scrambling to put his affairs in order: to save his presidency, his marriage, his relationship with his daughter – and possibly his life.
President David Murray starts the day in crisis. He’s lost control of Congress, has to decide whether to run for a second term, and his wife and teenage daughter are barely talking to him. What’s more, the Angel of Death has sent a rather inept “repo man” who is at the foot of his bed, giving him only one more day to live.
Cast members include Justin Bartha, Irene Bedard, Annette Bening, Chris Cafero, Dick Cavett, Auli’i Cravalho, Billy Crystal, Rachel Dratch, Darrell Hammond, Christopher Jackson, Robert King, Kevin Kline, and Robin Thede.
What did you receive?
